You can’t put everthing on one other person, you have to spread the load out
Rachael Davis chats to Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan about Big Mood, a dark comedy about a pair of codependent pals
Maggie and Eddie have been best friends for a decade, staying together through all the challenges of their twenties. Career woes, boy trouble, questionable life choices and wild fashion moments – you name it, they’ve got through it side by side, in each other’s pockets.
But now their thirties are looming, and life’s getting more serious. With their careers – Eddie’s as a Dalston pub owner, Maggie’s as a playwright – both reaching rocky territory and Maggie’s bipolar disorder making an unwelcome return, they’re being forced to take a long, hard look at their codependent friendship and whether it really serves them.
Comedy series Big Mood, starring Bridgerton and Derry girls’ Nicola Coughlan as Maggie and it’s a Sin and inside Man’s Lydia West as Eddie, portrays a pivotal moment for this pair of best pals.
The future’s at their doorstep, and with their friendship under threat from big life decisions and the complexities of dealing with a serious mental illness, questions are being raised about whether their friendship can survive in its current state.
There are truly hilarious lines, a brilliant Love actually-themed 30th birthday party (including a cameo from Joanna Page), the re-appearance of handsome exes at the worst moments, and even a steamy run-in with an old school teacher.
Darkly funny, emotional and relatable, the series – written by Nicola’s long-time friend Camilla Whitehill – paints a refreshingly honest picture of female friendship and of severe mental illness across six episodes on Channel 4.
ahead of the show’s launch, we hear from irish actress Nicola, 37, about why she loves this series, her experience of filming the comedy alongside her Bridgerton role, and tackling female friendship and bipolar disorder on screen.
Tell us about your friendship with Big Mood’s writer, Camilla Whitehill.
i’ve known her for 15 years! We met at drama school, and we just made each other laugh so much. She was training to be an actor – she’s a very good actor, but she refuses to do it.
She decided to pack in acting, and then i went to see her first short play. it was just so f ***** g funny and sharp, and i was like: ‘Oh, she’s gonna be a famous writer’.
it was kind of amazing that through our twenties we still persisted, because all signs are pointing to: ‘i don’t really think that these careers are gonna happen for you girls’. and i always wanted us to work together.
Well, here you are! What appealed to you about Big Mood?
The script was just brilliant, and it’s so her voice. it feels fresh, authentic.
From people i’ve shown it to, they were like: i feel like it’s going to teach people a lot about mental illness.
and i’m thinking, yeah, but ultimately what she wanted to do was write a really funny comedy.
also it’s the way we talk to [one]another. it’s not based on us by the way. i feel i have to tell people that!
As you say, Big Mood includes a really honest portrayal of bipolar disorder and depression, but is still absolutely hilarious – what do you think is great about that balance?
it was such a balancing act. Camilla had done it perfectly in the script. it was knowing that she [Maggie] is this very depressed person, but still
having her be funny, still having her humour about her, and knowing that when people are depressed or going through stuff, it doesn’t get rid of their personality.
But at the same time, it doesn’t over-glamorise it, it shows the realities of a depressive episode
People (in TV shows) are like, ‘i’m so depressed’, and they have a perfect blow dry. i’m like, no, if i’m gonna look s***, i’m gonna look s***! i really hate vanity on screen… You can go to an event and you can dress up and do whatever, but on screen you need to, i think, get rid of all of that and just play the character as they’re meant to be played… Just allow it to be ugly and messy and all of those things.
Friendship is a major theme in this, and we see how Maggie and Eddie always have each other’s backs but can also be, at times, a bit problematic. What do you make of their friendship?
i’ve heard this in the past, people have said to me: You can’t put everything on one other person. it doesn’t matter whether that’s your husband, or your best friend, or your sister. You have to spread the load out. and i think theirs is a perfect example of a friendship where they don’t do that.
all my eggs are in your basket, and then if anything goes wrong, the basket gets dropped and all the eggs get broken. You can’t do that.
it’s too much. They love each other. But it’s too codependent.
The series is set in Hackney, specifically Dalston, in London. You filmed in the area – how was that?
amazing, because for three weeks of this i was actually still filming Bridgerton. That’s really far away in west London. i live in Hackney.
So i literally got to roll out of bed, and sometimes not wear any hair and make-up, which i do slightly regret having seen that screener!
i would just rock up to set and be like: i’m here, i’m ready! (laughs)
Big Mood starts on Channel 4 at 10pm on Thursday